What is it about?
This article examines how Hagia Sophia’s reconversion from a museum into a mosque in 2020 became a powerful political event. Drawing on media coverage and interviews, I explore how Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party connected the building to feelings of pride, historical grievance and restored dignity. I show how a landmark’s changing status can help political leaders present themselves as champions of “the people” and strengthen their authority.
Featured Image
Photo by Ibrahim Uzun on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Landmarks carry memories and competing ideas about who belongs. Changing their use can give some people a sense of recognition while making others feel excluded. Understanding these struggles helps explain how leaders generate support through symbolic victories, even while concentrating power and weakening democratic institutions.
Perspectives
I am interested in how politics enters the places we inhabit and the emotions we attach to them. Hagia Sophia brings these connections into sharp focus. For me, the central questions concern whose memories acquire public recognition, whose histories are pushed aside, and how a shared landmark becomes part of a struggle over belonging and political authority.
Dr Spyros Sofos
Simon Fraser University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Space and the emotional topography of populism in Turkey: The case of Hagia Sophia, Cogent Social Sciences, January 2021, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/23311886.2021.1982495.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
